Box-seal.



E; J. BROOKS.

BOX SEAL.

APPLIOATION I'ILED MAR. 20, 1909.

2 2 6 m d d 6 t n 8 t a P 5 mm W601 If EDWARD J. BROOKS, or EAST ORANGE,NEW JERSEY.

BOX-SEAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented .J' une 22, 1909.

Application filed March 20, 1909. Serial No. 484,662.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. Bnooxs, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and a resident of East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Box-Seals, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to the combination of metallic seal parts and boxstraps as means; for sealing wooden packing cases or boxesso as toinsure the detection of any opening thereof for the abstraction of thecontents.

Heretofore it has been customaryto unite the sealpart and box strap andto com lete the sealing-operation by means of a 119.1 driven through theseal part and stra ends, or through the latter at least, into t e woodof the box. This necessitated the location of the seal part on the boxover an end or side of the box to rovide sufiicient depth of wood toreceive the nail. Otherwise the seal nail I light do serious damage tothe contents of the box. And it has been customary to arnm e' a sealedbox strap over the row of nails in t e box proper at each of its ends.

Examples of such boxseals are set forth in my previous specificationforming part of United States Letters Patent No. 847276 dated March 12,1907, and previous specifications therein referred to, and in myprevious specification forming part of an a plication for United StatesLetters Patent fi ed March 3, 1909, Serial No. 481201.

p In a companion specification forming part of an ap lication for UnitedStates Letters Patent ed March 19 1909, Serial N 0. 484,347 I have setforth means whereby to render such box seals nailless, and thus toprovide for using a single box strap if desired with a single seal partlocated centrally on the box cover or on. the bottom or one of the endsor sides, or in any desired position, without endangering the contentsof the box at the sealing operation.

' manner-set forth in said companion specification by means of metallicseal parts of more simple and inexpensive construction; and thisinvention consists in a'novel combina- .tion of parts and in an improvedseal part of such simpler and cheaper construction as hereinafter inoreparticularly described and claimed.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this specification asport thereof.

Figure l is a perspective view of a wooden box sealed according to thepresent invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the blank of the sealpart represented in Fig. 1 as it appears beiore being bent; Fig. 3 is aperspective view showing the same blank with its first two bends; Fig. 4is a )crspective view showing the four-bend seal part ready for use;Figs. 5 and 6 are sectional elevations illustrating the sealinoperation; Figs. 7 and 8 represent magnified sections through the comleted seal and the su'bjacent portion of tive views of modified sealparts of substantially the same construction as the seal part shown inFig. 1 and Figs. 4 to 8 inclusive.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in all the figures. v

I-n carrying this invention into effect a metallic seal part, a or a ora or a, and a metallic box strap, 1), are employed in connection with awooden box portion, 0, and with a box-strap tool or tightener arts ofwhich are represented at d, e and fin igs. 5 and 6, and a suitablesealing tool, 9, Fig. 6.

The seal part a or a or a or a, in each of its forms, is madeby bendinga flat blank (11", Fig. 2), which may consist of a suitable length ofthe strap'iron which forms the box strap 1;, or may be cut from tinscrap or any The more brittle other suitable sheet metal. the metal thebetter, provided it will receive cold the bends hereinafter describedand represented in the accompanying drawings, as any attempt to rebendany. portion of the seal part s ould result in its'mutilation' -and the1disclosure of the attemptjt o, violate the sea "2:

In each of the species, the lateral edges, 1 and 2, of the seal part areformed from the ends of the blank (a by successive bends at rightangles, all of which are readily formed in a bending machine at what ispractically a single operation. The other edges or ends, 3 and 4, of theseal part are permanently open, and admit the ends 1 and 2 of the boxstrap 6 as in Fig. 1 and Figs. 5 to 8 inclusive.

In the s ecies represented by Figs. 1 to 8 inclusive t e blank a? isprovided with a cenits edge and bottom portions formed y the. ends ofthe blank are symmetrical, under such length as to leave aspace, 6,beneathsaidcentering hole 5, as shown in Fig. 4.

',In the'species represented by Fig. 9 the blank is elongated at one endwith reference to a centering hole 5, soas to form abottom 16 and overlaping the other end of the piece of portion, 7,substantially parallelwith thetop of the seal part a, bent'inward from one edge metal at t eopposite edge'of the seal part.

' In'thespecies represented by Fig. the

seal art a is identical with theseal part a last escrib'ed,-exce..ptthat itstop, 8, is without a centering hole (5, Fig. 9) which may in 1some cases bedispensed with. In-thespecies represented b" Fig. 11, the

seal part athasa centering be e 5 in its top," iasin the first andsecondspecies, and has two overlapping bottom portions, 7 and 9, ex-

metal for. the punch to penetrate in this-form as compared with the sealpart a, Fig. 10.- Y 'The box strap E'rnay be cutfrom a-continu- '[o'u slength of. any suitable strap iron,'and requires norrelim'inarytreatment.

, The tig tener represented .in'Figs, 5 and 6 '.is or may be of theconstruction set forth in said previous specification forming part .of

.said application, Serial No. 481201, and the parts. re resented inFigs. 5 and 6 are the slotted s aft of the tool, represented at d, a

cross bar of the frame beneath said shaft,

' represented at e, and a cross bar at the front edge of the frame,represented at f. For, the urposes'of the present invention said crossbar e beneath the winding shaft may be provided with a s ur, 10, whichis driven through. one of t e box-strap'ends, 1, into the wooden boxcover 0 to preliminarily and temporarily fasten the box-strap ,endforthe tightening operation. Otherwise the tool may be of the constructionset forth in said previous specificationforming part of said applicationSerial No. 481201, or of any suitable known or improved construction.

The sealing tool g represented in 6 is or-may be an ordinary nail punchhaving a sharp tapered point, 11, a cylindrical or I equivalent portlon,12, immediately abovev the same, and preferably, a stop shoulder,

13, by which the penetration of the point islimited; A

After passing the box-strap b loosely around the box (Fig. 1) in thedesired position, both box-strap ends 1 and 2 are threaded through theseal part a or a? or a or a. The ti -htener de.f is then applied so asto drive its s ur 10 through one end, 1 of the box strap into the woodof the box cover 0, and thus to preliminarily fasten that box-strap endfor the stretching operation. The other box-strap end, 2, beinguppermost, is drawn beneath the front cross bar of' the tightener, andtemporarily inter- ..locked with the shaft (1 by threading it throughthe slot of the latter and bending its extremity to resist withdrawal asrepresented in Fig. 5'. The shaft dis then turned in the directionrepresented by the arrow 0/, Fig. 5, until thebox-strap bisundersuffieient tension to embed it in the box corners, at least, as setforth insaid previous specification lastreferred to. Withthe box strap bunder su'chtensiomand the seal part a or-a tool 9 is apfilied as in Fi6, its point 11 be-. ing centere by means 0 said centering hole 5, and ablow on its u per end by means of a shank 12 of the sealing tool throughthe two strap ends, and through the seal art, and com letesthesealingoperation. he stroke 0 t e sealing-tool is represented bydotted Lacs in Fig. 6, and the effect of the tool,

is represented by Figs. 7 and 8." After removing the sealin tool g, theshaft (1 of the tightener is turned backward,as represented by thedot-ted arrow b in Fig. 6, to unwind the box-strap end attached thereto,the

loose box-strap end is cut ofl. close to the seal part as represented inFig. 1. Referring to Figs. 7 and 8, itwill be seen that in the mannerabove described locking portions 11', 1.2- and 13,'of the two strap endsand of the to of said seal part a, are s1- multaneously ma e to projectrigidly down.- ward at ri ht-angles to the top of the box cover 0, an tointerlock with each other and with the wood of the box cover around .an

empty permanent indentation, so as to securely seal the box without theaid of nails driventhrough the seal art and box-strap ends as heretoforeconsi ered necessary.

, In the species represented by Figs. 9 to 11 inclusive, in addition tothe lockin portion 13 represented in Figs. 7 and 8, 100 'ng portions ofthe bottom of the seal part would and the latter would be embed e in thewood of the box part c. A single sealed box strap may in the abovemanner be located between the ends of the box as in Fig. 1, or

top of the box, as there is no seal nail to be driven through the coveror like box part into the ends as heretofore. The box-strap and sealpart may also, of course, be otherwise arranged and du licated ifdesired. The indentation by whic -one box-stra end is preliminarilyfastened as above (lesc'li ed is represented at 14 in Fi 1, and theempty permanent indentation eft in thewood by the sealing tool 9 is reresented at 15 in Figs. 7 and 8. Instead 0- square, the seal parts'tighteneristhen also removed,- and the or a or a in the desiredposition, the sealing hammer or the like rlves the point 1.1 and I whichis immediately removed from the box,

obviously be formed at the sealin 0 eration between the sides or betweenthe-bottom and different users may be;

may be oblong, "their closed edges or their open.-ed estlongest; thoseof fiere'ntly colored by dip ing' them insu'itab l'e pai'ntor'otherwise;

an other like modifications will. suggest themselves to those skilled inthe art.

I do not claim herein the within described method of sealing woodenboxes without the aid of nails; nor, broadly,- the combination with awooden box and a superposed metallic box strap under tension, havingoverlapped ends, of a metallic'seal part embracing the overlapped endsof said box strap and having a' portion parallel with said box-strapends, said box-strap ends and said portionof the seal part paralleltherewith having locking portions projecting rigidly at right angles tothe subjacent surface of the box, and inter-' locked with each'otheraround an empty per- 'manent indentation in the wood of the box,"

whereby a nailless' box seal is formed but hereby disclaim the same infavor of said companion specification forming part of said applicationSerial No. 484,347 hereinbefore referred to.

Having thus described said improvement, I claim as my invention anddesire to patent under this specification:

1. The combination with a Wooden box and a superposed metallic box"-strap under tension having overlapped ends, of a metallic seal partformed by. rectangular bends parallel with the longitudinal edges ofsaid box stra over apped ends of the'box strap and a portion parallelwith said box strap ends, said box-strap ends and said portion of thesealpart parallel therewith having-locking portions projecting rigidlyat right angles to the subjacent box surface, and interlocked with eachother, whereby a nailless box seal is formed. v

2. An improved metallic seal part for box seals, adapted to admit theoverlapped ends of a box strap endwise and to embrace their lateraledges; such seal part being formed by parallel rectangular bends-andconstructed and'having open ends to admit said with a to portion adaptedto be interlocked v EDWARD J. BROOKS. \Vitnesses J. T. MOALLIsTER, E. J.SMITH.

